It's not flesh-eating disease

Having lived the first forty years of my life without the Internet, there's hardly a day that goes by where I'm not amazed by the vast amount of information at my fingertips.

When I get sick, I jump on Google and find pages and pages of information on my symptoms or my illness (if I know what I have). This is good and bad. Sometimes it's comforting if it's nothing serious, sometimes is scares the hell out of me, like with MSRA.

When I came home from the doctor yesterday and before I even Googled MSRA, my husband was freaking out. He told me this was serious business. He proceeded to tell me about the guy that used a public telephone, got MSRA on his face that turned into flesh-eating disease and lost half his face. Thanks honey, nothing like comforting your wife.

Google confirmed his story, although it did say it was really rare for this to happen with MSRA and usually only happened to people with a weakened immune system. I think of myself as strong and healthy, so this just couldn't happen to me. Of course, there's always that little thought, what if?

I'm happy to say it looks like the second antibiotic, Bactrim, is doing it's job. My arm is still swollen and red, but the redness hasn't spread. Unfortunately it hasn't decreased either. It's basically the same as yesterday. I can't make a fist or use my right hand very much. I can't even write with it which is going to make work interesting today. At least my arm doesn't feel like it's burning off from the inside out.

I skipped the gym again this morning. This is day four. It's not something I'm happy about, but there's really nothing I can do about it. I rode my bike outside for 30 minutes yesterday, mainly just to get some fresh air.

I'm not taking the Vicodin anymore because it makes me feel kind of sick. Great for an appetite suppressant, but I hate feeling nauseous. Plus, I'm not in as much pain as I was over the weekend. It's bearable now as long as I don't bump it, then it's excruciating.

My eating has been totally good, but I forgot to weigh this morning. I was too busy checking out my right arm this morning, making sure I still had one.

Walter seems to be fine, and I'm not having him put to sleep. I just can't do it. He purrs all the time, constantly wraps himself around my ankles and seems content and happy. Although, there are moments I fear for my ankles, wondering if a sudden movement is going to scare him into another bout of crazy cat. For now, Walter is still with us.